“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
The 12th of August 1999 was declared “The International Youth Day” by the General Assembly. It is a day that commemorates many of the matters we fight for at "our freedom - our reality", such as youth empowerment and gender related issues. We have been following with keen interest several projects that the UN Women has launched because we share their values and goals.
Today, we had the pleasure to participate in the UN Women conference where several topics were addressed such as: International Youth Day celebration; 10th birthday of UN Woman; and the 25th anniversary of the Fourth United Nations World Conference on Women in Beijing, which represented a turning point for the global agenda for gender equality and resulted in crucial vows and objectives.
The highlights of the online conference can be classified into: different testimonies of young individuals around the world, who explained how they fought for youth rights and gender equality, words of the Executive Director of UN Women, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, COVID19 challenges, discussion about black life matters and their implications several debates and artists performing in honour of youth.
With regards to Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, she gave some strong words to encourage young people to keep fighting for their rights. Furthermore, she talked about generation equality and emphasized that leadership should not be left for tomorrow, but it needs to start today. Coupled with this, it was emphasized that women should be agents of action, this could mean: protesting on streets; voicing their concerns in conferences; educating themselves to the zenith on the educational ladder and also affecting lives with their education in order to change the status quo (that is already being change).
In addition, the barriers that limit women to set them up for progress was also mentioned. These barriers according to the Executive Director should be eradicated. She pointed that society needs to firstly acknowledge that they exist. She further stated that many gaps need to be closed. Gaps such as economic; technological; salary gaps and many more.
The challenge of COVID19 was also not left out of the discussion. The negative impact of it affecting the most vulnerable people and how youth all over the world are making great strides to mitigate the consequences that the pandemic is causing was mentioned.
The UN Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth, Jayathma Wickramanayake, also took part in the conference and contributed by saying: “To bring about change, we need to dismantle the systems of oppression that perpetuate systemic racism”. She moderated a debate with three young ladies about activism and what each of them were doing in this field. The first one, Vanessa Nakate, climate activist from Uganda, demands climate justice from international leaders. Ines Yabar activist from Perú, who works in 'techo', fights for the cause to reduce and eliminate plastic pollution. Her aim is to facilitate climate change and overcome poverty. The last person, Samantha Paige Davis, from US, is the Founder and Executive Director of the Black Swan Academy, a non-profit organization in the District of Columbia that concentrates on empowering Black youth through Civic Leadership and Engagement.
Afterwards, numerous artists and other people keen on the subject were invited, the conference which lasted for over two hours deliberated on the issues concerning youth and what should be done to give them a voice.
It is an undeniable fact that the youth of today are tomorrow’s leaders and we need to give them the tools to be able to express themselves and develop the skill of critical thinking. At Our Freedom - Our Reality we completely share these values. That is the core of our foundation, the reason of our existence and we yearn to exhibit it every day.
Our aim is to give a voice and prepare space for young individuals to express themselves and fulfill their dreams. We believe that the youth can be extraordinary if we give them the chance to be what they desire.
Ximena B. Solar Grillo
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